Slow Sunny September Saturdays...

It's mid morning....and Jill's just had her most compos mentis moment for some hours....and she decided to use her awake time to give me a "talking to" (as much as she could in her new monoword language) about sleeping (not sure about that, more like spending) the night in the chair alongside her bed. It was good to hear her voice....overnight talking was really limited to just very few words....we really only heard from her at the moments when she needed drugs because she had become uncomfortable. She's been sitting up in one position for some time now, and consequently is becoming a little less content, so we had a move over on to one side at about midnight and another back the other way at about 04:30. Both moves were proceeded by a "morphine top-up" some minutes before...with the extra drugs on board she was far less likely to panic. It seems now that even the smallest movements cause her to get out of breath, and that means that moving Jill around her bed (even with helpers doing all the work), even just helping her to sit up, is a real exertion. We know now that we need to plan ahead....and we do.

There's a conversion going on now about the strength of freshly made coffee..... Jill has just requested a cup. We had some specially nice ground coffee given recently, and Jill's got used to a single cup every morning at about this time. So Tom's gone off to prepare the potion....again, it's so good to have Jilly involved in a "normal" conversation....or what has become normal for us now. I never thought that I would appreciate just saying a few words so much.....

Now that Jill is "with us" at the moment, Dan has just read out the various messages that have come into Jill's phone overnight and this morning. There's been some tears...and one particular message needed a few attempts to get through. Even though Dan jokes about things more than the rest of us, that certainly doesn't mean he won't get emotional....we all have different ways of coping, or otherwise.

The night went well really, and I sure I must have slept....someone turned the TV off, and it wasn't me! The three boys and sister Sal all turned up just after 8, and Bex and I went home for an hour to freshen up. We're all back here now and Stephe has just turned up with Saturday morning refreshments...croissants mainly...and no one is complaining. Actually, I'm complaining, as I've just noticed that Dan has taken the bag outside on the terrace and is proceeding to munch his way through everyone else's quota. I'll be back in a moment.

Coffee has arrived now...been drunk....and croissiants (and Danish pastries) have been consumed....everyone feels that little bit brighter and more continental. What a glorious morning it is out there....we are most of us outside Jill's room and we have the door open wide. We can wheel the whole bed outside if we want to...maybe later...but for now we're all content in our various seating positions....all except Bex, who took herself off to the day room and has just been spotted fast asleep. We'll leave her be for now. 

So, we've finished breakfast...just in time to start thinking about lunch! Dog walking arrangements (which went completely pear shaped this morning) have been organised for this afternoon. Bex has woken up....and we're all in the room with Jilly having a chat. How we've missed this for a while.

There's lots of "boat chat" going on. All the 3 lifeboats, and the Fire Service Rescue Boat, are out searching....and if they weren't here then Dan and Jack would certainly be involved. AIS (Automatic Identification System) allows us to see where the boats are...just like Dan has on Jersey Seafaris and we also have on Lady J.


It's now suddenly become 14:00. I say suddenly because I stopped typing to help the nurses change/wash/redress Jill, and change some sheets. That was followed by a change of drugs in the pump that's regularly supplying morphine...then some sandwiches arrived (very important) and then we've opened both big doors and moved Jill's bed right almost nearly on to the terrace. That probably took a couple of hours...hence it's now 14:00.

The BIG news over lunch has been the fact that Sue (and Jill!) have managed to reach their total of £10,000. Jill was so thrilled when we told her. The additional drugs seem to have kicked in, and she's been perkier is the last couple of hours than she has been for some time. Having said that, all of a sudden the effort of the clothes change and wash etc, combined with those extra drugs, and the bed move into the posh seats have wiped her out now. She might have a spectacular view from her bed currently....but she won't be appreciating it with her eyes closed!! 

I'll blog some more later....